Page 53 of Sean's Sunshine
“Feel good, coming back to the living?”
Billy shrugged. “Yeah, a little. But I forgot how much time they take, you know?”
Sean texted his mother at least three times a day. “I know.”
Billy set his phone firmly aside then and closed his notebook, marking the page. “Hey, my sisters aren’t the only ones texting me today.”
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“Well, Henry was supposed to spend a night at the apartment with the guys, but he texted them to say he and Rivers were neck-deep in it, and he had to bail. The guys wanted to know what they were working on—Cotton said he sounded stressed—and I told them I’d ask. I mean….” He gestured to the sound of the wind and rain on the roof, and Sean nodded.
“Shitty night to be out,” he said softly.
Billy nodded. “I sort of lost track. Rivers and Henry—they’re always up in somebody’s business, right? What do you think they’re doing?”
Sean didn’t have to rack his brains. Ellery had actually asked him a couple of questions the week before as they were prepping for the case. “It’s an ugly one,” he said softly. “The one where that kid with special needs got accused of attacking the woman in the park with a knife. You remember.”
Billy snorted. “It was so dumb. Witnesses were like, ‘That guy had to work to walk unassisted!’ and the cops were like, ‘He resisted arrest!’ Yeah, I remember. How’d that even make it to trial?”
Sean shrugged. Jackson and Ellery reallyhadbeen neck-deep in the case pretty much since they’d brought Cotton back, but Sean had followed some of the details on the news, and they hadn’t been pretty.
“Cops lied,” he said, feeling the heaviness of this in his chest. “They lied, and then they beat the kid to cover it up. I would imagine Jackson and Henry are out trying to find who really did it. I mean, you gotta admit, that would make a pretty cool surprise at any trial, right?”
Billy nodded and gave a crooked smile. “Well, yeah. But isn’t that shit only for the movies?”
Sean held his hand out and wobbled it back and forth. “I imagine there’s plenty of drama out there if you look. But yeah. That’s probably what Henry’s doing tonight.”
Billy blew out a breath. “I should go over and check on them,” he said heavily, and Sean opened his mouth to say, “Yeah, we should both go,” but Billy cut him off. “Just me. It’s cold and wet out there, and you are at risk for infection. So no. No you joining me. I don’t want to leave you alone….” His face softened. “For one thing, you’ll watch that stupid cop show without me, and I’ll get all jealous that I missed it.”
Sean smiled softly. “I’ll find a movie you’re guaranteed to hate,” he said, “so you don’t miss anything.”
Billy stood and put his hands on Sean’s shoulders, bending down to kiss the top of his head. “No going out in the storm to help Rivers, okay? Not without me? Deal?”
Sean closed his eyes and let Billy’s heat sink into him. “It’s been a long time,” he said softly, “since somebodynotmy mother was worried about me like that. Don’t worry. No heroics. I promise. I’ll just sit here and be a couch potato.” He yawned, hating how long it was taking him to come back from this. “As long as you get home and turn me over, broil my other side….”
Billy laughed like he was supposed to and set about making dinner, but thoughts of Rivers and Henry brought up worry Sean didn’t think he’d had in him. It was funny how people grew on you. He’d hated Rivers when they first met. He’d spent years trying to ingratiate himself to the people on the force, trying hard to follow the rules and do the right thing. But then he’d met Ellery Cramer, and he’d crushed so damned hard. Here, he’d thought, had been a man who had his shit together, who knew and respected the law, and who was willing to work hard for justice.
What he hadn’t understood then was that the fire that had lit Ellery Cramer from the inside had been Jackson Rivers. And watching Jackson—and Ellery—take risks with their lives over the past year and some change had made him more and more aware of exactly how he risked his own life. He loved being a police detective, but he’d better be on the side of the angels when he went out. That was his only requirement.
Even if his captain or his colleagues didn’t agree with him on where that line was.
The thought that he’d been backup—no matter how unwary—for Jackson and Henry as they tried to get an innocent kid out of jail when he’d gotten stabbed had been the only way he’d been able to make any sense of his injury.
Like he’d told Billy, he’d gone from light to the dark to the light.
The light had been the idealism that had carried him into the force, and the dark had been the assumption that he’d have to go along to get along.
The light had been when he’d remembered he could think for himself, he could draw his own conclusions, and he didn’t have to follow the department line if he didn’t want to. His soul was worth way more than any promotion, than any money or the accolades of his peers.
Even if it meant getting stabbed as he followed his friends back to the office from lunch.
And now he was laid up while his friends went into the cold and the dark and the rain and looked for evidence to defend a kid from the corruption of the institute Sean represented.
He wanted so badly to be with them. Goddammit, he wanted to help.
The least he could do was let Billy go tohisfriends and help be the stabilizing force they needed.
Billy hustled around the kitchen, working on grilled chicken and preseasoned brussels sprouts as Sean set the table—quietly so as not to earn any censure. When dinner was ready, they both sat down, and Billy frowned.